Lonely or not? Masterpieces in the museum, then and now

Abstract

James Huneker, in an essay on the ‘Melancholy of Masterpieces’ (1915), compared the museum with a jail and bemoaned the isolation of the masterpiece in this prison. Twenty-first-century masterpiece culture seems at times to encourage the segregation of the greatest works, which in turn occasions criticism. The question is much older than we think. Nineteenth-century museums developed innovative solutions to the question of the masterpiece. They gathered them together in one gallery, encouraging a comparative study of the great masters. This permitted better viewing conditions and also promoted discussion and debate about the art of the past, but also about art of the time. At other times, they decided to isolate the greatest works, placing them alone in a specially conceived room.